This is the Steinway site on this question:
So faithfully does the soundboard perform this difficult function, that no matter how many strings may be sounding at one time, their almost incredibly complex motions will always and unfailingly be taken up and reproduced. Thus, the soundboard of the piano acts just as does the parchment head of a drum or the thin steel diaphragm of the receiver element in a telephone. It should be remembered, however, that it is the strings, and not the soundboard, that originate, by their vibratory motions after they have been struck, the sound which the soundboard amplifies.
http://www.steinway.com/technical/soundboard.shtml attributed to Dr. William Braid White, Principal of the School of Pianoforte Technology, Chicago, Ill. (italics mine)
However, did anyone read my post on this question? One thing I observed was:
"The plate is made of cast iron and is designed to support, with the help of the frame, many tons of string tension. The average medium size piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 160 (72.7 kg) pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all the strings equaling approximately eighteen tons (16,300 kg). The tension in a concert grand is close to thirty tons (27,180 kg)...."
Piano Servicing, Tuning, & Rebuilding; For the Professional, the Student, the Hobbyist," by Arthur A. Reblitz, New York: Vestal Press 1976, pp. 13-15
The image I get from the bell, which I already elaborated about, is the soundboard as belfry, not amplifier or transducer. We do not strike the soundboard like the head of a drum. We strike the string. The capacity for the soundboard to enhance sound would not take place without the modern plate, which however you modify the hitch pins and capo termination, will always still be connected to the strings. In the full history of the pianoforte, the kind of resentment Steinway created has less to do with what they describe to be the diaphragmatic soundboard, described as this:
DIAPHRAGMATIC® SOUNDBOARD is fashioned from selected, matched, solid quarter-sawn planks of even growth Sitka spruce. The thickness is gently tapered from center to edge resulting in a freer, more uniform vibration throughout the entire board
http://www.steinway.com/steinway/specs/bidding_standards.shtml
and more to do with the modern plate, however responsible Steinway is for that, which created the modern string diameters and string tension that modified the piano in such a way that it lacks the subtlety, and the variety of earlier pianoforte instruments.
Soundboard as belfry is another metaphor we may draw in this question. The town may be large, or small. In a Large town, we need a bigger bell, i.e., more string tension, stronger plate, increased string diameter. If we don't have one, we might need a harder mallet, i.e. lacquer. Then again, the size of the bell may be deafening in a small town with a bell too large, i.e. too much string tension, an unnecessarily strong plate, exaggerated string diameters, and require a soft mallet to strike the bell. The soundboard merely houses the plate and the strings, a structure through which the sound is transmitted. Generally, the potential for augmenting the tension the plate allows determines the volume, not the soundboard, though this observation could be taken out of context when considering down bearing also.
Part of the belfry is the hall. The problem with the modern plate, and microphones, is that we don't build the hall around the musician, the singer, the instrument, the ensemble. There are halls made of marble that force people to stop clapping. It is deafening. We don't need the kind of string tension even of a Boston or Essex to fill a hall with the sound of a piano. For this reason, to this day it is amusing to see how people like José Carerras react when in front of a microphone.
Touring churches in New York with an organ instructor to play selected organs, (St. Patricks, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, etc.) one develops a strong understanding even of how the belfry of a gothic cathedral, opposed to a wooden cathedral, changes sound. We don't think about this enough as piano technicians anymore, because all pianos are so loud, and if not loud enough, miked so they are.
- Ben
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090511/f1f52e27/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC